This is the first official rendering of the B-21.
Enjoy.
http://imgur.com/wyvKab8 (http://imgur.com/wyvKab8)
(http://i.imgur.com/wyvKab8.jpg)
Meh. Northrop did it already...
Quote from: SamuelRosinsky on February 26, 2016, 03:26:01 PM
This is the first official rendering of the B-21.
How is this different than the B-2?
Quote from: LSThiker on February 26, 2016, 03:56:42 PM
Quote from: SamuelRosinsky on February 26, 2016, 03:26:01 PM
This is the first official rendering of the B-21.
How is this different than the B-2?
They added a 1 to the name? >:D
Quote from: lordmonar on February 26, 2016, 04:06:58 PM
Quote from: LSThiker on February 26, 2016, 03:56:42 PM
Quote from: SamuelRosinsky on February 26, 2016, 03:26:01 PM
This is the first official rendering of the B-21.
How is this different than the B-2?
They added a 1 to the name? >:D
and probably one more digit to the procurement cost...
http://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2016/02/26/b-21-bomber-air-force-lrsb/80976160/ (http://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2016/02/26/b-21-bomber-air-force-lrsb/80976160/)
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James also explained in the statement why the B-21 shares a resemblance to the B-2, also built by Northrop.
"The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology," James said, according to the statement.
The Air Force settled on the B-21 designation as recognition that LRS-B is the first bomber of the 21st century, the statement noted.
a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology - the B5-21
(http://media.defense.gov/2014/May/28/2000797898/670/394/0/140528-F-PB123-102.JPG)
Mike
Here is pretty much the same design from 1949, and it is not even the first example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49 The Germans had a nice design too, but without computer controlled flight systems to make thousands of corrections per second, the flying wing is inherently unstable. Radar "stealth" is fundamentally non-existent. Give me enough Microwave power and I can see a duck in flight! ( In fact, I can cook it too!)
Quote from: ALORD on February 26, 2016, 05:03:42 PM
Here is pretty much the same design from 1949, and it is not even the first example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49 The Germans had a nice design too, but without computer controlled flight systems to make thousands of corrections per second, the flying wing is inherently unstable. Radar "stealth" is fundamentally non-existent. Give me enough Microwave power and I can see a duck in flight! ( In fact, I can cook it too!)
Or just set up a bistatic radar system.
Whats in a name...
This program has been ongoing for years, and the teams have just finished several years of restricted access development and demonstration of a production weapons system concept (PWSC was at least the term that we used to evaluate the Boeing and LM candidates for JSF, the term has changed slightly since then). The terms thus change over time: for example, for what is now the F-35, the program began life as a concept study ("Analysis of Alternatives") within OSD in the early 90s to blend the MRF and ASTOVL programs, which then took life as JAST (a joint strike technology S&T program), then "JSF" an aircraft program, then the name "F-35" was picked after the procurement milestone was reached with an award to Lockheed (by which time I'd departed from that first tour with them). They may at some point drop the "Lightning II" name (the F-22 already rejected it).
I would expect the LRSB/B-21 name to change again within a year or so. The indication is that they're carrying the designator B-21 as a working name, and not a model designator. In fact, they've apparently been asking USAF members to help "name the bomber"... don't forget, SAF tried and failed to get winning names on most of the recent aircraft: "Fighting Falcon" vs Viper, and trying to call the F-22 the "Lightning II" before they gave it the "Raptor" monicker and (briefly) the "F/A-22" (I still have golf shirts with that "F'n A" logo, as we called it to add to a small collection of F-32 ball caps, A-12 items, etc...)
Best candidate name I've heard yet for LRSB is too hilarious and political to post here from a serving CAP officer but is a play on the current CinCs name. If experience is a guide ("Thud", "Viper", "Vark", et al) the aircrews will call it what they will and SAF/OSD can kiss off!
V/R
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